August 10, 2000
		'Mad cow' deaths on the rise, study says According to new research published in last week's Lancet medical journal, deaths resulting from the human form of "mad cow" disease have increased by about 33 percent each year in Great Britain since 1994. Scientists believe that people contract Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, or CJD, by eating beef that has been contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). BSE is thought to be caused by feeding infected ruminants to other ruminants, such as sheep to cows. Researchers with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the National CJD Surveillance Unit said 14 people have already died from the brain-wasting disease in the first six months of this year, compared with 18 deaths for the whole year of 1998. The incubation period is unknown but thought to be lengthy, considering that one person who died of CJD had been a vegetarian for 20 years. Because of the uncertainty of this disease, scientists are unable to assess the scale of the exposure and how long it will take to reach its peak. CJD is always fatal and can only be identified in a post-mortem examination. Since the British outbreak, about 200 cases have been found in Portugal and smaller numbers in Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Denmark, and Switzerland.